Check studs on car: man warns

A man travelling from Waroona has had his faith in humanity restored after a good Samaritan went out of his way to help.

Josh Owen had been four-wheel-driving in Waroona, before the regional boundaries came into play.

He was driving back to Mandurah along South Western Highway when one of the wheels of his car broke off.

“At first, I thought I had just popped a tyre, but then I realised I had lost the entire wheel,” he said.

Mr Owen said he was just listening to music and decided to turn into a fuel station to fill up.

“I remember thinking ‘the petrol prices were pretty good, especially for diesel’, so I started to turn in and fill up.”

As Mr Owen turned in, his Nissan Patrol’s front left-hand-side wheel rolled off into the path of oncoming traffic, narrowly avoiding all the traffic.

A surveillance camera at the fuel station managed to capture the incident.

His wheel got caught on the front hub and that is when he lost the wheel.

Mr Owen believed one of the wheel studs was loose when he bought the vehicle.

He said the studs took two hours to change and he never quite got around to doing it.

“Looking back, I probably should have changed them earlier; prior planning prevents poor performance,” he said.

He said he was stranded with his three-wheel-drive and did not have the correct parts with him to fix his car, when a good Samaritan offered to help.

“A man with a horse float passed by and offered to give me a lift to Mandurah to get the car parts as there was not any in Waroona.

“I offered to pay him for his time but he didn’t take a cent; he even drove me back to my car.”

Mr Owen said he would like to thank the man for helping him that day and said he would encourage people to check their car’s studs.

“I am so lucky it happened as I was turning and not when I was going 110kmh,” he said.